Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 09:58:18 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Fred Pierce Subject: Re: Signs of Spring In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit More singing. First Cardinal song I observed was Jan 11, again this morning. Titmice are singing more - I notice sunny days like today really set them off. A bit of House Finch song on the 26th. Not nearly as much activity as Jan. 02 though. Lots more warm days and singing recorded that year. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Fred Pierce (DNRC)- fpierce@avialantic.com Mid-Atlantic Aviation on the Web - http://www.avialantic.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- > -----Original Message----- > From: Maryland Birds & Birding [mailto:MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM]On > Behalf Of Norm Saunders > Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2004 8:26 AM > To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM > Subject: [MDOSPREY] Signs of Spring > > > It certainly doesn't appear that any warming trends are on the horizon > but it's now 42 days since the first day of winter and that means > we're enjoying approximately 21 minutes more daylight per day than > back on December 21. > > Is this enough to trigger physiological and behavioral changes in the > birds we see? > > Well, here are a few possible indicators: > > 1. We've been hosting as many as 5 Fox Sparrows at our Worcester > County feeders since Christmas. This weekend, for the first time this > winter, we heard them singing. > > 2. Red-winged Blackbirds have been around all winter. Today I heard > the first "conk-a-ree" of the year. > > 3. Yesterday Fran and I were watching gulls feeding on the rocks > where the old railroad bridge used to come ashore in Ocean City, next > to the Coast Guard base. We noted two Herring Gulls that appeared to > be in full breeding plumage--pure white heads, bright yellow bills, > very strongly marked gonydeal spots. > > 4. Finally, we spent all day yesterday riding around Worcester, > Somerset, and Wicomico Counties looking for birds. We didn't turn up > a single Snow Goose all day long. Are they already flocking up and > moving up the coast? > > Anyone else have some (welcome) signs of spring to report??? > > Norm & Fran Saunders > > ================================= > Norman C. Saunders > Colesville & West Ocean City, MD > marshhawk@att.net > > ====================================================================== > = > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > ---------------------------------------------------- > This message has been processed by Firetrust Benign. > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================